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HISTORICAL ABSTRACT. _5I
Moneada, Viceroy of Naples. [During the war, Lorenzo de' Medici 1517.
is forced to retire, owing to a wound in the head, received before
Mondolfo on April 4 ; the war cost 80o,00o ducats, most of which
were supplied by the Florentines. See Guicciardini, St. d' It. xiii.
ch. i-iii.]
A conspiracy against the Pope, organised by Alfonso Petrueei,
brother of ]3orghese, in which many Cardinals are implicated,
proves a complete failure [May-June].
Leo X nominates thirty-one Cardinals, thus securing a sum of about July 1
500,000 ducats.
Beginnings of the religious struggles in Germany; indignation at the
sale of indulgences ; Martin Luther at Wittenberg.
l_[aehiavolli.--Writes ' L' Asino d' Oro,' Op. v. 381. It was never
finished. [For the date cf. Op. viii. 154, letter to Ludovico
Alamanni, of December 17.] Continues to correspond with
Giovanni Vernaccia ; Lett. Fam. xlv, and Villari, iii. doc. iii.
Leo X negotiates with the great European powers for a general 1518.
cessation of hostilities, in order to prepare for a war against the
Turks. Unites his family with the French house by the marriage
of Lorenzo de' Medici to Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne
[daughter of John, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne, and of
Joanna daughter of John Duke of Vend6mel]. Francis I, on the
birth of his first son, asks Leo X to be sponsor ; Lorenzo goes to
France [leaves Florence March 22] to represent the Pope. On
his return to Florence [September 7], festivities in honour of his
marriage are celebrated with great magnificence. At the close
of the year, Lorenzo falls ilL--Great discontent at Florence with
Lorenzo, who abandons the 'vivere civlle,' and tries to make himself
in name as well as in reality prince of Florence [Ammirato,
Bk. xxix, sub anno ; Guiceiardini, Bk. xiii. ch. iv].
MaehiavoUi.--During March and April at Genova, to negotiate on
behalf of some Florentine merchants [see Vlllari, iii, docum, v.
P. 397]. Returns to San Casciano. Begins to attend the meetings
of literary men, who form a kind of club in the Orti Oricellarii,
grouped round Cosimo Rucellai. [Among those who frequented
the Orti Oricellarii were Jacopo Nardi, Fllippo dei Nerli, Zanobi
Buondelmonti, Luigi di Piero Alamanni, etc. Cf. Nardi, Bk. vii.
§ viii: ' Niccolo (Machiavelli) era amato grandamente da loro...
e della sua conversazione si dilettavano maravigliosamente,
tenendo in prezzo grandissimo tutte I' opere sue.' Vlllari, iii. 45
foll., etc.]
1 The marriage was nominally concluded per verba de presentl on January 25,
while Lorenzo was still in Italy, and Madeleine in France ; the real celebration
took place in April, at Paris.